Clowning
The term clownism comes from the early description of hysterical states by Jean-Martin Charcot around the middle of the 19th century. He thus characterized a second phase of a hysterical attack after an "epileptoid" phase, followed by a "pathetic" and " delirious " phase. Charcot often caused hysterical attacks in his patients in front of an audience, so that some patients tried to imitate or to exaggerate or surpass what they had seen before (including clownerism).
Clownerism appears as a euphoric mood combined with grimacing, grotesque postures, often imitating others and an increased distractibility. Outside of Charcot's hysteria theory, clownistic states can be found in various other psychopathic states, schizophrenia or severe intellectual disability . The term is considered obsolete in modern psychiatry and is no longer used. The symptoms are now classified as dissociative seizures .
Individual evidence
- B. Schmitz: Dissociative attacks . In: B. Schmitz, B. Tettenborn: Paroxysmal disorders in neurology. Springer, Heidelberg ISBN 3540407898 , p. 226
- Georges Didi-Huberman: The Invention of Hysteria. Jean-Martin Charcot's photographic clinic. Fink, Munich 1997 ISBN 9783770531486